Our "paperwork pregnancy" has officially started. We have found a home study agency (and they are very close- on Central Ave!) and they have sent us all of the paperwork. Did I mention it took 3 separate emails with zipped files to send us everything? We have also been given our family coordinator for AWAA and she has sent us all of that paperwork as well, over 30 pages of guidelines and agreements for our dossier. Yep, they have chosen the right name for this process. It feels so real now. It's been hard and scary to get excited about this after so many months of disappointment. But, even though the expenses and paperwork are daunting, I feel very at peace with this decision (I think I've mentioned it before but I have always felt a pull towards adoption, even when I was young. I guess that was God's way of preparing me for this. I love how He knows things like that!). One thing I know we will need are at least 3 letters of reference so we'll have to see what their guidelines are a far as who can be a reference for us. Be on the lookout ;)
I am going to put some information about the expense of this process in here so that, hopefully, we can help someone who is interested in adopting. I'll keep a running record of the expenses on the right and write about any grants, fundraisers, or loan information (they do interest free loans for adoption) that we find helpful as well. Justin and I found out that the state gives help for adoption costs to state employees! Yay! We don't get it until we bring him home but that means if we have to get a loan it will help us and hey, we all know kids aren't cheap! We also will receive a $2,000 tax credit every year until he's 18 on top of the child tax credit everyone gets.
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